BBC to launch major review of salaries

THE BBC will launch a salary review of presenters and rank and file staff in an attempt to quell anger sparked over the corporation’s gender pay gap.

Lord Hall, the BBC’S director-general, will today try to calm the storm that engulfed the broadcaster when it revealed two thirds of its top earners were men, according to senior figures.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that he has called in consultants from the accountants PWC and lawyers from Eversheds to work on an “equal pay audit” of all BBC staff that will aim to uncover disparities.

A senior source said the review could lead to pay cuts for some staff and rises for others, saying that “nothing is off the table”.

Lord Hall has previously pledged to “sort” the gender pay gap by 2020. The source added: “Tony and the executive team are keen to do something pretty big and dramatic. It’s going to be open, transparent and independent.”

The work is expected to take around six weeks, with the results due to be unveiled alongside new data on the gender pay gap at the BBC. All organisations with more than 250 staff must publish gender pay gap data by April next year.

A third review, expected to take longer, will target the outcry over the scale of pay for some presenters. Separate consultants will seek to compare BBC pay for on-air talent to that of other broadcasters, amid anger over Chris Evans’s £2.2million package.

A senior source said the new review of talent pay would take into account payments made under freelance contracts as well as a salaries “to get a full grip of the facts”.

The BBC was forced by the Government to publish the salaries of all staff earning more than £150,000. The list of 96 names, revealed in July, showed that male presenters are paid more for what licence fee payers might see as the same job as female colleagues.

The newsreader Huw Edwards earns up to £600,000, for instance, while fellow main bulletin presenter Sophie Raworth is paid less than £200,000. On Radio 4’s Today, John Humphrys is on up to £650,000, whereas co-presenter Mishal Husain gets less than £250,000.